7 things you may not know about the GOP candidates for SC governor

First, there was Boots, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s late longtime four-legged bulldog friend and star of his campaign ads. Then, along came Mac, whose little paws also stole the spotlight.

But did you know about the other bulldog at the S.C. Governor’s Mansion, waking up early to chase the groundskeepers as they work?

His name is Winston, and his existence is one of several facts you might not know about the Republicans who hope to be elected S.C. governor about a year from now.

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster

1. The secret pooch. While Boots and Mac have enjoyed a little celebrity, Winston has lived a more normal dog’s life at the Governor’s Mansion.

The governor and wife Peggy agreed last spring to provide a foster home for the adult English bulldog at the request of a friend of the first lady who works at a pet shelter.

“She knew we loved bulldogs and knew we had just gotten a little puppy, so she asked if we would consider keeping him,” the governor told The State. “She brought him (Winston) over and, of course, we fell in love with him right away.”

The dog had been removed by court order from an owner who was not taking proper care of the animal, McMaster said.

But at the mansion, Winston spent his days lounging on the porch, romping on the lawn and playing with Mac, McMaster said. Now, the pup awaits adoption at Pawmetto Lifeline, where he has been for about a week and is enjoying himself.

“We assumed that we would be keeping him, but, really, he needs his own home,” McMaster said Wednesday as he prepared to take Mac to the shelter for a playdate with Winston. “He needs someone to pay attention just to him.”

And, after months of rehab, McMaster said Winston is in good shape.

“He has a build like a prizefighter now.”

2. McMaster’s other jobs. This is McMaster’s 15th year holding public office since he was appointed U.S. attorney in 1981. But aside from being a longtime politician, he has had other jobs.

For instance, McMaster was a fundraiser for the University of South Carolina after his failed bid for governor in 2010. USC paid him more than $450,000 from 2011 to 2014.

Also, McMaster owns more than a dozen rental properties near the University of South Carolina, his alma mater. Tenants have paid McMaster roughly $7.7 million over a decade renting properties, mostly along Greene and Henderson streets near campus.

What has he paid to maintain those properties? About seven cents for every dollar paid in rent.

Catherine Templeton

3. Insider or outsider? Templeton, McMaster’s top challenger for the GOP nomination for governor, pitches herself as a conservative outsider who will clean up corruption in government. McMaster, she says, is a part of the Columbia establishment that needs cleaning up.

But Templeton has a long record as a Columbia insider to defend, having been chief of the state’s labor and environmental agencies. Already McMaster’s campaign is attacking Templeton for scoring lucrative no-bid contracts as a private consultant at two state agencies. At the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, for instance, Templeton became a paid consultant the day after resigning as the agency’s director. The state consulting contracts paid her $124,000 for five months of work. However, the agencies have no record of the work she performed.

4. Can a true conservative vote for a Dem? Templeton has one line item on her resume that doesn’t sync with the self-proclaimed conservative outsider’s pitch for GOP voters.

The Charleston attorney voted for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen in the 2010 race for governor. Templeton told The State that she made that pick after then-state Rep. Nikki Haley beat Templeton’s favored GOP candidate, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, for the Republican nomination for governor. Sheheen was a law-school friend and Haley was an unknown at the time, she said.

Now, of course, Templeton touts herself as the second coming of Haley, who she did vote for in 2014.

Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant

5. A Medicaid hunger strike? Which Republican candidate for governor gets a big Medicaid payday? The one who promises to cut the budget of the federal healthcare program for the poor, elderly and disabled.

Bryant’s pharmacy and medical supply company was paid $12.9 million by the state’s Medicaid program from 2009 through 2016, according to ethics disclosures that Bryant has filed with the state.

Bryant, a dark horse in the race for the GOP nomination for governor, is president of and 30 percent shareholder in Bryant Pharmacy & Supply, which has a lot of state employees as clients.

Since 2010, Bryant also reported his business had earnings of an additional $3.1 million from payments by the state’s health plan.

Bryant said those amounts are gross receipts that his pharmacy brings in – not what he brings home in his paycheck. Medicaid and the state health plan amount to about 25 percent of his pharmacy’s income, he estimates.

Bryant said he has cosponsored a bill to move the authority to set how much Medicaid pays for different services to the state’s Medicaid agency, stripping that power from lawmakers. He also said he supports cutting Medicaid reimbursement rates to providers, including himself.

Asked why he would want bite the hand that feeds him, Bryant said of the reimbursement rates, “They’re too high.”

Yancey McGill

6. True colors? There is another Republican in the race whose Democratic ties could raise doubt in the hearts of some Republicans.

McGill was a Democrat until recently. The former Williamsburg state senator and lieutenant governor remained in the Democratic party until he was out of office and decided to run for governor.

McGill has said he long voted with Republicans, but remained a Democrat because his Senate seat was in a Democratic district.

7. Burn rate on fire. While he is the darkest of dark horses in the GOP race, McGill is almost winning one contest in the race for S.C. governor – the how-fast-can-you-burn-throgh-your-cash race.

McGill had spent $444,273 through the end of September on his campaign, according to his most recent finance report. He has raised only slightly more than he’s spent, leaving him with $2,891 in his campaign account at the end of the quarter.

The only candidate who reported spending more than McGill was S.C. Gov. McMaster, who reported $447,064 in expenses. However, McMaster has raised $2.3 million in his bid to keep his job and has plenty left to spend.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 10:15 AM with the headline "7 things you may not know about the GOP candidates for SC governor."